Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Mystery Electric Car Prototype at CES

It is a day of carbon-friendly news for us as the enigmatic Faraday Future reveals its first ever prototype vehicle January 4 on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Faraday Future, which seeks to “redefine mobility,” is named after renowned experimental physicist Michael Faraday (he of the Faraday Cage fame). The company made waves with its secrecy in the lead-up to CES and finally unveiled its first prototype vehicle while continuing to offer scant details on its ownership and structure.

Going by the shape and structure of the prototype though, we are wonder if the firm is from Gotham, with funding from Bruce Wayne. Faraday future took the wraps off its Batmobile-style vehicle (just look at it), which is part of a plan to compete against the likes of Tesla and reshape the auto sector. This baby is a 1,000 bhp monster that The Verge calls both “ridiculous” and “pretty cool,” which also sounds to us like a fair description of the mythical Bruce Wayne.

“We are embarking on a complete rethink of what mobility is,” said the company’s senior vice president of research and engineering, Nick Sampson, unveiling the “FFZERO1” prototype car on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company actually calls this a “hypercar” and given that it theoretically crushes to race to 60mph in 3 seconds and tops out at 200mph, that is fair. For some context though, the McLaren P1 hypercar has fewer horses but goes quicker in every way. Of course, the P1 is also a real car so there is that.

Sampson said Faraday intends to move “very fast” on its plans and has already announced a $1 billion factory to be built near Las Vegas.

In just 18 months since its founding, Faraday has 750 employees and intends to produce its first car within two years. Faraday will move fast because it will act “more like a technology company than an automotive company,” Sampson said.

At the event, Faraday confirmed a “strategic partnership” with China-based media and tech firm Letv, but did not elaborate on its ownership or even indicate the identity of its chief executive.

The company told AFP that Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting is among its investors and popular speculation has it that the company is a Chinese venture. What is known though is that its employees include former executives from Apple, BMW, Google, NASA, Tesla and other prominent firms.

Sampson said Faraday has created a variable architecture platform to create multiple vehicles, and is using techniques such as virtual reality to speed up development. He also said Faraday was exploring “new types of ownership” for the vehicles, but did not elaborate.

Based in California, Faraday Future announced its factory plans in early December, saying it would be a “first phase” for the new company, which is yet to get a vehicle on the road.

The facility is “something more than an ordinary ‘assembly line,'” according to its announcement, and will include three million square feet (280,000 square meters) “for passionate creators and diligent visionaries, where new concepts will be refined and implemented.”

It will create 4,500 jobs in the region.

This report was compiled by in-house writers, in combination with a wire report and image from the AFP.